Tag Archives: Drought

The setting sun casts a warm glow over the golden California hills, its last rays illuminating the tops of distant oak trees. A little used gravel road winds its way in and out of the peaceful scene, and all seems right with the world on this tranquil evening in the mountains of the San Francisco Bay Area.

I’ve mentioned our severe drought in several recent blog posts, and here is an example of the current state of the land. I took this photo last week, as the sun began to set below the hills. We have a “Mediterranean climate” (mild winters, warm to hot dry summers) and are used to the grass drying up and many plants going dormant in the summertime. However, the vegetation is particularly parched this year, and many local reservoirs have turned to cracked depressions filled with grass and a bit of mud. While there is a certain beauty to the rolling golden hillsides such as the ones depicted in this photograph, I certainly hope for a long and heavy rainy season this winter!

Let’s face it, California is in a severe drought, and we are seeing the muddy bottoms of reservoirs (there is an old car sitting in the mud and cracking earth at the bottom of a local one). In a year where rain during the winter rainy season was a novelty, the thought of summer rain is mildly absurd in our climate with its traditionally dry summers. Therefore, I thought I’d post this photograph as a reminder that moisture can indeed fall from the sky, and once in a long while, it even happens during the dry season…even if it is just a little sprinkle to moisten foliage and flowers.